Archive of ‘Blog’ category

So say the latest and greatest business books. But if you’ve launched your startup on social media, you might be starting to question this theory. You might find that posting on social media is taking up a huge proportion of your time. And you might find that people are ignoring your posts. No one is clicking. No one is buying. So you are probably wondering: why put the effort in?

Common advice about launching a startup is to spread the word as much as you possibly can prior to the big day. But what I’m going to explain in this blog post is why that approach could be a mistake, and I’m going to suggest a pretty strange alternative strategy but one that can be very effective. It involves a bit of help from your closest friends.

The fact you are on my website means that, on some conscious or subconscious level, you do have a desire to start your own business. Perhaps you are unhappy in your job. Maybe you want something more rewarding in your life. Perhaps you want success. You might simply want a better balance between work and family life. Perhaps you are due to go on maternity leave and you are worried that your employment isn’t going to cover the cost of childcare when you return. Or perhaps you are just bored and frustrated at the 9-5 commute and you want freedom.

If you are a mom, do you ever feel like you are at a disadvantage in starting up a business because you are trying to balance your work with family life? Many times I’ve had that same feeling. Sometimes I’ve wondered if it might have been easier to start a business when I was in my 20s and had all that time to myself. But now I’ve been running my business for a while, I’ve realised that I actually launched at the perfect time. More importantly, I’ve realised that my dual role as business owner and a mother gives me a unique competitive advantage that many startups just don’t have. Here’s why:

Spoiler alert: running an online business and being a full time mom isn’t easy, and there is no easy answer in this blog post.

However, I know I have a lot of readers on this blog who are women thinking of starting a business but who are also raising a young family. If you’ve read my About section you’ll know that I have a young daughter (later edit: now I have three children!), and that I launched the business when she was just a baby.

What I will try and do is keep this short and sweet (I get it: you’re busy!) and give you a few helpful hints and practical tips that have helped me over the years.

One of the most effective ways to get people finding your website on Google is to create a blog, because high quality content is what will help Google determine if you are a site to direct people towards.

Now, SEO can be a complex subject if you want it to be, and if I were to walk you through everything I know on SEO there would be far too much to cover in one blog post, so in this post I’m simply going to look at one of the most basic aspects of SEO: your page title (or more specifically, your blog post title).

One of the best strategies for succeeding in the world of online startups is by starting small (or lean, which is the fashionable team at the moment. But I use the word small. It’s straightforward and it doesn’t remind me of dieting).

When it comes to launching your website, small is the way to go. In this post, I’ll outline my top tips for helping you do that, and help you to avoid the stress that comes from trying to launch any new website.(more…)

In the second of my series interviewing female entrepreneurs who’ve taken that big step of starting their own business, I spoke to Ellie, Director of http://www.exhibitionplinths.co.uk. Ellie also has a blog at http://www.ellieentrepreneur.com talking about her journey to self-employment. You can also find Ellie on twitter as @EllieExhibition, and she has a list on there (inspiration) outlining the seminars and workshops she attends.

If you are thinking about doing paid advertising, you are probably considering how to design your ad. So let me ask you a question: are you designing it to look beautiful? Or are you designing it to work for you?

I love fashion and lifestyle magazines. Whenever I travel, I’ll buy two or three at the station or airport to keep me occupied for the journey. And if you flip through any of these magazines you’ll see some stunning ads full of beautiful models, gorgeous locations and elegant typeface.

So it is tempting to create ads that showcase beautiful design, your stunning logo, and inspiring images. But before you do so, read this article. I will explain why beauty isn’t everything when it comes to advertising online.